The present disclosure relates to a semiconductor device provided with a circuit performing intermittent operation, and to a control method used in such a semiconductor device.
In recent years, a power circuit is often mounted in an integrated circuit. Accordingly, in an electronic apparatus provided with such an integrated circuit, it is possible to achieve reduction in the number of components, improvement in design flexibility, reduction in consumed power, and the like.
A method of dynamically controlling power supply to each circuit depending on an operation state of a system in order to further reduce consumed power in such an integrated circuit has been known. For example, in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2006-65471, a power saving control method in which an integrated circuit is sectioned into predetermined various kinds of functional blocks, a clock enable signal is sequentially inactivated by a certain time difference to each of the functional blocks to make the transition from a normal mode to a power saving mode is disclosed. Accordingly, in the integrated circuit, malfunction of the integrated circuit caused by drastic decline of the power voltage in the transition to the power saving mode is prevented.